1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to segment type diamond tools typically used for cutting or drilling brittle substances, such as stones, bricks, concrete structures, or asphalt structures, and, more particularly, to a diamond tool designed to increase the cutting rate while reducing the amount of fine debris generated during a cutting process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, diamond is an extremely hard form of carbon, crystallized in the form of an isometric structure, and so diamond may be preferably used in a cutting or drilling tool. Artificial diamond was developed in 1950s, and has been widely used in place of expensive natural diamond.
Particularly, the artificial diamond (herein below, referred to simply as xe2x80x9cdiamondxe2x80x9d) has been more preferably and widely used in the stone cutting field for cutting or grinding a variety of stones, such as granite or marble, and in the construction field for cutting or grinding concrete structures.
A segment type diamond tool typically comprises a plurality of segments each set with diamonds, and a steel core holding the segments thereon.
FIG. 1 is a view of an example of conventional segment type diamond tools.
As shown in FIG. 1, the segment type diamond tool 1 comprises a plurality of segments 11 and 12 regularly fixed along the outer edge of a disc-shaped steel core 2, with diamonds 5 randomly set in each of the segments 11 and 12.
When cutting a brittle substance using such a diamond tool 1, the diamonds of each segment perform their cutting action on the substance.
In accordance with studies and experiments performed by the inventors of this invention, it has been noted that the cutting rate of a diamond tool is undesirably reduced when the diamonds are randomly set on the segments of the tool.
Such a reduction in the cutting rate of a diamond tool, with segments each randomly set with diamonds, occurs for the following reasons. First, the lands between grooves formed on the surface of a brittle substance by the diamonds of a leading segment are remarkably larger in width than the diamond size, and so it is almost impossible for the diamond tool to completely remove the lands from the surface of the brittle substance even when the diamonds of a trailing segment pass along the lands. Second, some diamonds of a trailing segment may pass along the grooves previously formed on the surface of the brittle substance by a leading segment, and so such diamonds on the trailing segment do not perform any work.
The segment, randomly set with diamonds, has been typically produced through a powder metallurgy, in which diamonds are mixed with metal powder to form a mixture prior to a sintering process.
That is, in the conventional powder metallurgy for producing segments for diamond tools, diamonds are mixed with metal powder prior to a forming process and a sintering process. However, it is almost impossible for the diamonds to be uniformly distributed to the metal powder due to differences in mesh size and specific weight between the diamonds and the metal powder. Therefore, each segment of a diamond tool may be segregated with diamonds densely provided on an area 3 and sparsely provided on another area 4, thus arising the problem of random distribution of diamonds.
In such a case, the diamond tools are reduced in cutting rate and wear performance.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a segment type diamond tool, which is appropriately set with diamonds on its segments so as to have an increased cutting rate, in addition to reducing the amount of fine debris generated during a cutting process.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a diamond tool, comprising: a plurality of segments each set with diamonds in a single-layered structure or a multi-layered structure, the diamonds of the segments being arranged such that the diamonds of each trailing segment form grooves on the surface of a brittle substance along the lands between grooves previously formed on the surface of the brittle substance by the diamonds of a leading segment.